TEXT:it becomes the nation's greatest prize. Volcanic magma. Over millions of years, in a fault zone beneath the Sierra Nevada, cooling and pressure create quartz. And within the quartz, gold. The seam is one of the densest on the planet. Rocks erode and the riches are released.

1848. Carpenter James Marshall finds a 3 -ounce nugget in the California river. Two months' pay in his hand, but billions of dollars be neath his feet. News of Marshall's discovery spreads to every corner of the world. In California, you can taste the American dream: get rich quick. Within a year, 100,000 desperate amateur prospectors flood the Sierra foothills.

It was the American dream distilled to its essence. Take yourself and go out and try and make a success of it. A Chinese prospector's 100 -ounce strike in the Yuba River. $26,000 made by a single Irishman in just four days. A $200,000 super seam mined by 12 Mexicans at Bear Valley. In the port of San Francisco, a plot of land worth $16 before the gold strike now changes hands for $45,000.

In two years, the population of California explodes from 15,000 to 100,000. Now, hand -panning is replaced by lines of sluice boxes desperately combing for anything the first prospectors missed. And the price of living rocket. Picks, pans, shovels go from a few cents to $10 a piece. Breakfast costs ten times what it does back East. But still the people come.

译文:加利福尼亚并入美国当月就成为美国的最大宝藏。火山下岩浆翻滚，数百万年后在内华达山脉之下的断层地带，岩浆冷却后受压形成石英，石英深处是黄金。此处黄金的富集度堪称世界之最，岩石被侵蚀之后财富终现于世。

1848年，一名叫詹姆斯·马歇尔的木匠在加利福尼亚河里发现一枚3盎司的金块，他手中拿着相当于两月薪水的金粒，脚下踩着的却是价值连城的金山。马歇尔发现黄金的消息迅速传遍世界每个角落，在加利福尼亚，美国梦是那么触手可及，一夜暴富。不出一年，十万名狂热的业余淘金者涌至内华达山麓。

H.W.布兰茨[德克萨斯大学著名美国历史学家]：“美国梦的精髓就在于努力探索，勇于尝试，走向成功。”一名华人淘金者在尤巴河岸淘到重达100盎司的金块。一名爱尔兰人四天之内就淘出价值26000美元的黄金。12个墨西哥人在熊之谷发掘出价值20万的大金矿。在旧金山港，淘金热之前一片售价16美元的土地，如今转手价却飙升至4万5千美元。

两年之内加利福尼亚的人口爆炸式增长，从1万5千增长至10万，手工淘金被一条条闸盒组成的流水槽替代，人们拼命想筛出先驱者们遗漏的宝藏，物价飞涨。镐，淘金盒和铁锨等工具的单价，从区区几美分涨到10美元早餐的花费比东部贵上10倍，但淘金者仍纷至沓来。